Professor Mark Danson
School of Science, Engineering and Environment
Peel Building - Room 305
Office hours: Monday 1-2pm; please email for an appointment.
Current positions
Professor of Environmental Remote Sensing
Biography
I am Professor of Environmental Remote Sensing and joined the University in 1990. I have a first degree and PhD in Geography from the University of Sheffield and previously held academic positions at the Universities of Sheffield and Nottingham. I was promoted to Professor in 2000 and from 2004-2008 I was Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Environment.
I am a recent past editor of the International Journal of Remote Sensing, and past member of the Natural Environment Research Council Peer Review College. From 2005-2009 I was UK Representative for EU COST Action 734, Climate Change and Variability Impacts of European Agriculture and in 2013-14 I was a Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellow. Since my appointment at Salford I have published more than 100 peer-reviewed journal papers, held research grants worth in excess of £3 million and successfully supervised 22 PhD candidates.
Areas of research
Environmental Remote Sensing in Ecology
Areas of supervision
Remote Sensing, Earth Observation, Ecology, Forestry
I teach an undergraduate module in Environmental Remote Sensing, and at postgraduate level in GIS and Remote Sensing. I also supervise Undergraduate and Masters level Dissertations, and PhD candidates.
My main research interests are concerned with mapping, modelling and understanding environmental change, specifically the effects of climate and human activity on the biosphere. My main area of expertise is in the application of Earth Observation satellite and airborne remote sensing imagery to monitor change in ecosystems. I have pioneered the use of remote sensing to measure vegetation water content and applied these methods in research to predict wildfires in the Mediterranean and UK.
I have also used remote sensing to map landscape in China and central Asia and model the transmission of the deadly parasite Echinococcus multilocularis. Most recently I have developed the World’s first dual-channel full-waveform terrestrial laser scanner that is now being used to make the most accurate three-dimensional structural measurements of vegetation canopies ever made.
Qualifications
- BSc (Hons) Geography (First Class), University of Sheffield, 1984
- PhD Environmental Remote Sensing, University of Sheffield, 1989
Memberships
- Member of the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society